Eight office cleaners at the Hartford Courant lost their jobs in December.

There is no hope for recourse for many who suffer job loss. This has not been the case in Hartford, where the community has rallied around the janitors whose pay was deemed too costly at the same company that provided $42 million in bonuses for others at the Tribune.

On January 9, 2012, residents spoke out before a City Council meeting, urging officials to take some kind of action on this matter. Last Saturday, the Hartford Organizing Group held a “comfort food feast” to raise funds for the janitors. They raised nearly $1400, which will be presented to the cleaners today at the “Project the Truth” march and rally slated for 4:30 this afternoon. The protest will begin in front of the Old State House and conclude at the corner of State Street and Columbus Boulevard.

At the next meeting of the City Council, there will be discussion of the following resolution:

During the last meeting, there was talk of the City possibly advertising its job openings in local media sources that are not owned by the Tribune.

UPDATE: edited (20 Jan 2012) to show expanded version of the resolution

Reprinted with permission of Kerri Provost, author of the blog RealHartford.
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